String-fastener.



m. 66mm] Patented Dot. I6, I900.

E. E. MOORE.

STRING FASTENEIL (Application flied in 12 1900.

(N9 Model.)

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CHARLES E. MOORE, OF SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

STRlNG-FASTENER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 660,078, dated October 16, 1900.

Application filed January 12,1900. Serial NO- 1,235. (No model.)

To (ti/Z whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. MooRE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Somerville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in String-Fasteners, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a metallic attachment or device for conveniently and securely fastening strings and lacings employedin tying bags, packages, shoes, and other articles; and it consists in the device described and claimed herein and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in Which Figure 1 is an illustration of my fastener as when in practical use upon a package and showing the position of the string before drawing it closely around and between the hooks. Fig. 2 is a similar view of the fastener as employed in tying a package, but showing the string drawn closely and secured in the hooks. Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of my improved fastener as constructed of suitable wire bent to the required form. Fig. 4 is a plan of a sheet-metal blank designed to be formed by bending into a fastener substantially like that shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. Fig. 5 is a plan of the hook when bent into form from the sheet-metal blank. Fig. 6 is an edge view of the same.

The fastener, as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, is formed of a single piece of wire bent into the shape shown in said figures. It may be cut out and formed of sheet metal, as illustrated in Figs. A, 5, and 6; but suitable wire is deem ed preferable. The fastener consists, essentially, of a pair of hooks A A, separately formed on shanks B B, extended practically parallel to each other to the required length and then together formed into an eye or loop C, which may be folded over upon the shanks, as shown, or shaped in any other suitable form to afford convenient and proper facility for attaching the fastener to a binding-string or other article, according to the use made of it. When used to tie up a package, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the string D, after being passed around the package E in the manner described, is drawn taut through the hooks A A and coiled around the bight of the same and its free end D then drawn between the hooks, as shown in said Figs. 1 and 2, and se cured, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The passage of the string between the hooks as described is facilitated by forming one of the hooks, as

A, slightly longer, so as to extend beyond the other, such advanced portion serving to guide the string more readily into place between the hooks, and widening the hooks somewhat by bending the ends A and A of the wire that forms them, so as to overhang laterally the string drawn around the bight of the hooks, also facilitates inserting the taut string between the hooks by preventing the string from slipping up over and off the hooks while being carried up against the advanced point of A and drawn between the hooks. When thus secured in and around the hooks of the fastener, the reactionary strain on the string tends to coil it more firmlyaround the hooks and to hold it fast between the hooks, so that not only is the cord secured from slipping by its coil around the bight of the hooks, but the pinching caused by such coil upon the string between the hooks makes backward slipping practically impossible, and consequently the fastener, while easily released, is positively secure against accidental releasing.

The elastic expansibility of the fastener adapts it to securely hold twines of varying sizes from comparatively-fine thread to cords much larger and stronger without unduly increasing the size of the fastener. For especially heavy strong cords the fastener may of course be enlarged to suit the purpose.

In use the end D of the string to be fastened is drawn taut from the object to which it is attached or around which it is wound, as around package E, into the bight of the hooks and around the same and thence carried up against the advance part of hook A and, guided by the inner edge thereof, is pressed between the two hooks and drawn backward down to the bight, and thus firmly secured by the pinch of the hooks produced by the stress of the coil around the same.

I claim A string-fastener composed of a single Wire bent to form a loop, or eye, C; two parallel shanks B, B, extended from the eye; and two hooks A, A, formed by doubling the outer ends of the wire and then bending them back over the shanks, so that the parallel edges of the hooks will serve to hold the string around and between them in the manner and for the purpose specified.

CHAS. E. MOORE.

Witnesses:

W. M. BRooKINes, EUGENE HUMPHREY. 

